A mathematician walks into a bar and asks for ten times the normal number of drinks anyone else has. "Wow," says the barkeep, "That's an order of magnitude."

Q:What do you get when you cross a mosquito and a mountain climber?
A:You can't cross a vector with a scalar!

Original.

New Zealanders are stereotypically known for their drab color selections, and accordingly Murray dresses in a range of olive greens, browns, and grays.

—http://www.expressnightout.com/content/2009/08/flight-of-the-conchords-fashion.php

Air NZ 737-300 Safety "Bare Essentials"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-Mq9HAE62Y

It's not on TV... The quality is way too good -- it's been directly put on YouTube by Air NZ.

The words are, as far as I can tell, covering the same material that the traditional safety breifing covers. So... are they using this actually on the plane?

All I can say is they weren't using it on the flight AKL to ZQN I was on a last weekend. That was a 737, and I think it was a 737-300.. might have been a different model.

(The flight attendant on the flight AKL to ZQN informed us that we had to switch our phones to flight mode and that if our phone didn't have a flight mode, it was "high time we upgraded".)

Now, personally, I'd love to see Billy T. doing the inflight safety briefing... :)

I'm trying to work out what I should do for a holiday at the moment. I'm currently seriously thinking walking the Queen Charloette Track/Sound.

There's this option, which does strike me as terribly, terribly soft. Fun, yes, but soft definintly.

I'm not really ready for a five day hike my own-gear-in sort of a hike though - I don't think I have the physical fitness for it. (The Queen Charloette track is considerably easier than that - you merely have day-walks from place to place, and your pack is carried by water-taxi from place-to-place!)

Certainly, this sounds quite a good option, where I'm hiking without having my hand almost-literally held. Unfortunately, doesn't look a good deal for one person!

Seems like I should really buy a pair of boots though. Just to have and wear them around for a while beforehand to wear them in.

http://www.i-needtoknow.com/charlotte/ seems like a good intro. Anyone done this walk?

According to http://www.queencharlottetrack.co.nz/track/walk.aspx#walk2 it's $95 for the transport from picton, the pack-transfers, and transport from the end back to picton. I'd have to work out accomidation in Picton at both ends, possibly a night extra to recover. :) Ferry across to Wellington (urgh).

Not sensible to drive from Auckland to Wellington, although not difficult. Cheaper to fly. AKL->WLG flight, Ferry to Picton.. Right.


Something like
http://www.marlboroughsounds.com/walking/freedom-walk-queen-charlotte-track/5dfw
I think. Although I might investigate seeing what I can do myself.

And, duh, this is the official site!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/08/2485401.htm?section=justin

Apparently there have been reports of arson in Victoria.

I cannot comprehend that. I really really can't.

Over one hundred people are already dead from the bush fires. People being literally cremated in their cars.

I cannot imagine what it's like.

You can go window shopping on trademe! All the fun of looking at stuff without having to actually buy it..

I got bored after dance class last night and had my camera...

	Royal Oak shops at dusk I
	Royal Oak shops at dusk II
	Moon and One Tree Hill
	Monument on One Tree Hill
	View from One Tree Hill at dusk
	View from One Tree Hill at dusk (A bit of infill flash. I think I need to investigate off-camera flash or a diffuser or something!)

Jessica tells me that I look kind of like the guy in this commercial—and it's somewhat scary!

Could someone explain the disclaimer on the satchet of butter that came with the muffins I bought today?

It claimed "Contains Dairy Products."

Oh gees.

Laywers... sheesh.

Yikes, maybe americans can speak the kiwi accent after all?

(I think she was a little strong on the 'yiss', and her Sydneeey one wasn't quite perfect, but damn, that's a lot closer than anything else I've heard.)

She's in Seattle, WA, USA. And, no longer will I accept people telling me the Aussie and the Kiwi accents sound the same!

New Zealand has real quality hard-core criminals..

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4798320a11.html

Hehehehe.

I've just had a shower and my hair is wet.

Just wanted you to know that..

So, Jessica's passport posts made me wonder, where is MY passport?

I ask Dad.

He told me that I must of had it to get back into the country.

Yes, thanks, helpful that..

So I went looking to find out about chicken fried steak. It was Southern cooking.. so I thought, 'himmm, I wonder what NZ cooking is like.'

I search for "new zealand cooking."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pah2yk3Jx50 is the first hit.

Speed Cooking 1 - cooking a three course meal in under two minutes, the Moon TV way...

I'm glad I had the common sense to read about an idea on the internet before doing it.

Virtually everyone online is saying 'don't'. I bought a lens on Trademe a while ago - a second-hand EF series lens. Looking through it now, I see there is dust *in* the lens (not on the outer surfaces). Annoying.

I'm wondering about dissassembiling it and removing the dust - but apparently getting the glass back in alignment is very tricky. Even a professional might not get it bang on correct, and you do generally need specalised tools.

I'm guessing a professional will charge me about as much as the lens cost me to clean it for negligible, if any, improvement in image quality.

(Apparently (some?) L series lenses from Cannon should not accumulate dust inside as they are air-tight.)


http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/ is a fantastic resource about getting into 'above compact' photography, aimed at Canon EOS and EOS-D owners.

Meanwhile, you can tell that the canon design engineers have small noses. Honestly.

So, what software do people use to lay-out photographs and suchlike for printing? ANd then getting them printed?

I could print them myself on my own ink-jet, I guess, but I don't really trust myself with that. If I could be convinced that it would be worthwhile, I could do it, I guess..

Frogprints.co.nz have a program that 'gets near' but not quite up to Shannon level reliability. (I *am* the sort that wants to make sure the photos have the same alignment! I can't do a gridline or anything similar.) H.P.'s frogprint's.co.nz is also pretty close too - the editing isn't as flexible (to be sure) but it's also more correct (while it's not as flexible, it will guarentee that the lines are straight!)

(When using it, it helps to get the orientation of your photos right in the album before you make a book out of it. ALso, I have to use the slow upload mode if I want full-page prints!_

At the moment, I'm thinking it's a toss-up between Snapfish and something like InDesign. :) (That would be, er, A Bit More Expensive but would definintly do the trick. The hard part would be getting the file printed somewhere though. Back to buying the aformentioned ink-jet, and to be honest, they're not *that* expensive. It's just that I wouldn't use it all the time and it'd probably clog up on me. I still could, though.)

Anyone got any experience with this sort of thing and doing it at home?

It seems like shannon is full of Stress at the moment, jumping around from one thing to another. It's making for a less than happy fun time.

Finally started my burn DVDs of dancing photos off for people project; only how many months late? One down, many to go.

Going sailing today.

Went dancing at the RSA last night, which was good fun. :)

Got two offers for stuff to do tonight - dinner at my boss's and the dance comp at Brown's Bay. I dislike having to make decisions!

I think the trick to becoming a good photographer is taking lots of pictures and learning from mistakes.

In my case, I've realised that when taking pictures of dancers, I need to get their whole bodies in - normal snapshots would just be the torso up or similar.

Oh, and keeping the camera LEVEL would be another good pro tip! Sheesh, looking at these, you'd think my neck had a crink in it or something! :)

I want some fast glass -- the Canon 50 mm prime EF f/1.4 USM lens would be might tasty for dance / indoor sport photography.

Question: Why don't EF-S sized cameras multipy the focal length by 1.6 prior to writing to the JPEG? It'd be smart if the EXIF tag had a 'focal length' and '35 mm equiv focal length' tags.

( Shannon's Flash Discoveries )

(err, by flash, I mean Xenon flashes, specifically on EOS cameras and E-TTL II metering. Not flash as in wizz bang. :) )